The Ethiopians dorminated the first half in a stadium full to its capacity with their fans. They had many opportunities to score goals, but had poor finishing. In the second half they started well again, but the Super Eagles had over come their nerves and calmed down. The Nigerians began to play better and took control of the second half.
The Antelopes were still doing well with their speed and passes, and in the 57th minute their persistence yielded the first goal of the match, when Behailu Assefa's crossing from the left flank was misjudged by the Nigerian keeper, Vincent Enyeama. The ball crossed the goal-line before he caught it.
But the Super Eagles star striker, Emenike, was not yet done, even though he was being tightly marked by the Ethiopian defenders. At the last minute, he beat his maker, Aynalem Hailu, to a long thrust ball from midfield, the defender grabed his hand and pulled him down in the box, the referee awarded Nigeria penalty, which Emenike himself cooly sloted into the right side of the net, making it 2 - 1.
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It was a match that all credit should go to both teams. The Ethiopians played a great game, they were just unfortunate to loss, after some wonderful display of football. The Nigerians came back into the match with their experience in international football. The second leg will be played in Calabar, Nigeria on the 16th of November.
After the match, the Nigerian assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi, said to the media, ''We are happy with the result. And the boys did well to get this result from what was not an easy game.''
''But we have to tell the players, that there is still 90 minutes to go, so we still have to work hard, to make sure we win the second leg.''
''The first half wasn't very good, but we were happy that the first half ended 0 - 0 and the chief coach spoke to the boys and told them a few things and that helped them play better in the second half,'' the former Eagles striker said.
''We have to give credit to the team as everybody did their jobs,'' Amokachi added.
Jonathan Akpoborie, another former striker of the Super Eagles, said that it was the individual brilliance of Emmanuel Emenike, that gave Nigeria victory.
''I see it as the individual brilliance of Emenike, that took us over this hurdle called Ethiopia.''
''Congrats to the Eagles and Nigerians but they have to work harder ahead of the home tie,'' he said.
While the former Super Eagles captain, Sunday Oliseh, wrote in his twitter page, that Nigerians should stop arguing about the overall performance of the team, that what matters is qualification. He called the match winner,
''5 star Emenike.''
''Nigerians please stop arguing about the performance, at this stage, all that interest us is qualification. Don't worry be happy, ''5 star Emenike'', he tweeted.
''It was a difficult match, Addis Ababa is always a difficult place to play with fans all over the place supporting the home team,'' Akpoborie said.
''They gave us scare in the first half, but we survived it. In the second half we showed them the stuff of Africa champions. But it is not over, we still have 90 minutes to play before, we start the celebrations,'' Akpoborie added.
The second World Cup play-off of the day, was played between Tunisia and Cameroon in Tunisia. The match ended 0 - 0 and the second leg will be played in Cameroon next month, November. Both sides missed many opportunities to score, especially the home side, which dorminated the first half. The Indomitable Lions came into the match in the second half, and created opportunities which were not utilized.
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